Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• Abilene Christian University expelled a student for putting on a "black face" with red lipstick in a Snapchat video. It's a private university so no one can have an issue with kicking the gal out.
• For years on here I've been ridiculed for allowing racist comments for the purpose of exposing that racism still exists. I would be told, "Racism is dead" 
• Of course the majority of Trump voters aren't racist. But there is no question that his election has emboldened those who are. And there are far more of them than we want to admit to.
• I went on the Texas Secretary of State's office to see how close to the top Wise County's 86% vote for Trump was to leading the state. There was not easy graphic to find out but Jack County beat us with 89%. I'm guessing there are at least two counties between here and Amarillo that are 90% or more. 
• I think he kept it too close to his ear . . .
  
  
• I mentioned the other day that Trump will have huge (pronounced "yuuuge") conflicts of interest and cited the new Trump hotel in D.C. as an example. I learned yesterday that (1) The federal government actually owns the hotel's building so the federal government, which he will be in charge of, makes him his own landlord, and (2) There are no financial conflict of interest laws that apply to the President. Good lord.
• "Fake news" was in the real news yesterday. I love that a guy who comments on here regularly cites InfoWars.com and Alex Jones to prove me wrong.  We might have a serious problem in this country with a generation raised on the Internet has no no meaningful skills to discern the truth. 
• The Secret Service has the obligation to keep Trump Tower in New York safe just as any other president's residential home. Man, what a daunting task. There are shops in there. (Cue the orchestra music: I went in it one time in the 1990s.) And that obligation to protect won't end in four years -- they will have to protect it for the rest of his life. 
• Horrible incident at Oklahoma City's airport where a Southwest Airlines employee was killed. He was the punter on OU's 1985 championship team. He also had one son in pro football and two daughters who play sports at Oklahoma. 
• You guys realize there are actually people out there who think Trump will build a wall (he promised), deport every illegal alien (he promised), wipe out ISIS (he promised) and will implement a Muslim ban (he promised), right? And those people were enough to tip the election to him. And he knew it. The old phrase of "crazy like a fox" describes him to no end. 
• The college football selection committee is doing a bit until its final selection when they will get it right. 
• Bill O'Reilly got all pissy yesterday on CBS saying Megyn Kelly is making Fox News "look bad" by talking about the sexual aggressiveness of Roger Ailes. That is the definition of tone deaf. 
• Is HBO paying the Ticket to talk about Westworld all the time?
• I repeat from time to time that when I die I want to be cremated with my ashes, mixed with glitter and confetti, shot out of a cannon from the Wise County Courthouse bell tower. It is a running fun bit in Green Manor,  and I've almost convinced them I'm serious. (For clarification: I am.)
• Criminal Justice dream: We require juries of 24 people who must be unanimous. Why would anyone object to this?
• I've heard everything said about Tony Romo's press conference, and I agree. But I'll add two things: (1) It was really, really weird -- at least weird for him. (2) It was a PR genius move. 
  
• The Grand Prairie teacher who was fired once it was learned he had said online he was "capable" of a "Sandy Hook like" shooting was found guilty yesterday by a criminal court and fined $500.  What he said is disturbing and should keep him from being a teacher, but there is no way that the First Amendment allows the government to criminally punish him for what he said. It was not an imminent threat. It was only disturbing and offensive. And the government can't criminalize speech that is only disturbing or offensive.